• Health:
• Commonwealth Health Challenges:
• Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

There are 825,000 preventable Tuberculosis (TB) deaths each year in the Commonwealth. Commonwealth countries account for nearly 30% of the world population but carry the burden of 49% of total Tuberculosis deaths.

TB is a disease that disproportionably affects the poor and prevents Commonwealth citizens from escaping poverty.

On average TB patients may forfeit up to a third of their income, and the societal benefits of TB treatment could be as high as 3-4% of gross domestic product in high burden Commonwealth countries. The Sixth Millennium Development Goal calls on the international community to halt and reverse the spread of TB by the 2015. Commonwealth governments have a key role to play in meeting this goal.

The Global Plan to Stop TB

In January 2006. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown and Bill Gates called on world leaders to rally behind the Global Plan to stop TB. The Global Plan sets out the actions needed to achieve the Plan's goal to halve the TB burden by 2015. If fully implemented, the Global Plan will treat 50 million people, including 800,000 with multi-drug resistant TB and 3 million with HIV/TB. It will also prevent 15 million TB deaths. Engagement by Commonwealth governments and communities will be critical to the success of the plan.

• Learn more about the effort to stop TB at http://www.calltostoptb.org/
• Download the plan at http://www.stoptb.org/globalplan/